He was a major locomotive designer and builder[2] and many of his London and South Western Railway engines continued in main line service with the Southern Railway to enter British Railways service in 1947. He was awarded a Telford medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1896/7 for a presentation on 'high pressure in locomotives'.[1]
Original Tay Bridge from the northFallen Tay Bridge from the north
Drummond was involved as an expert witness in the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, being called to give evidence about the state of the track after the disaster. Although Ladybank, a 0-4-2 locomotive of Drummond's design, had been booked to work the train it had broken down and was replaced by no. 224, a 4-4-0 to the design of Thomas Wheatley, thus freeing Drummond to act as an independent witness.[3] He said that the entire train had fallen vertically down when the High Girders collapsed, from the impact marks the wheels had made on the lines. All the axles of the train were bent in one direction. The evidence helped disprove Thomas Bouch's theory that the train had been blown off the rails by the storm that night.
In 1882 he moved to the Caledonian Railway. In April 1890 he tendered his resignation to enter business, establishing the Australasian Locomotive Engine Works at Sydney, Australia. The scheme failed rapidly and he returned to Scotland, founding the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company. Although the business was moderately successful, Drummond accepted the post as locomotive engineer of the London and South Western Railway in 1895, at a salary considerably less than that he had received on the Caledonian Railway. The title of his post was changed to Chief Mechanical Engineer in January 1905,[4] although his duties hardly changed.[5] He remained with the LSWR until his death. His locomotives for this railway were usually capable, as long as they had no more than 8 wheels. However, his 4-6-0 designs ranged from disastrous to mediocre. He also encumbered many of his LSWR engines with innovations which he had patented himself, such as firebox cross water tubes, and his smokebox steam drier, which only gave a very small degree of superheat. After his death, his successors improved the performance of many of his engines by fitting them with conventional smoke tube superheaters.
In addition to his post at LSWR, in 1895 Drummond was appointed as Locomotive Superintendent to the National Rifle Association, with responsibility for rolling stock on the Bisley Camp tramways. In 1897 he oversaw the design and construction of a new target truck for the Running deer range, using targets that had been designed for the ranges at Wimbledon by eminent animal painter Sir Edwin Landseer.[6]
Drummond died on 8 November 1912 aged 72 at his home at Surbiton. A myth has developed that he died as a result of scalding received on the footplate. However C. Hamilton Ellis states that he had got cold and wet and demanded a hot mustard bath for his numb feet. He was scalded by the boiling water. He neglected the burns, gangrene set in and amputation became necessary. He refused an anaesthetic and died of the shock. He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, which is adjacent to the LSWR mainline, in a family grave just a stone's throw from the former terminus of the London Necropolis Railway.
Family
Drummond's daughter, Christine Sarah Louise was born in Brighton in 1871, soon after the family's arrival there from Scotland. She married James Johnson, son of Samuel Waite Johnson CME of the Midland Railway 1873–1904. Her third child, born in 1905 was named Dugald Samuel Waite Johnson after both of his grandfathers.
